Ed Ripley

Ed was responsible for much of the success of Tampa’s WDAE from the mid 1960’s to the mid 1970’s. However, his start in the broadcasting business was in college at the Stetson University radio station in Deland where he received a degree in speech and radio. Before moving to Tampa in 1965, he worked for the Storz stations in New Orleans and Minneapolis, and got his first PD’s job at WMBR in Jacksonville.

One of his WDAE achievements was moderating "Point of View," the station’s top-rated talk show that featured interviews with top newsmakers of the day. Because of a non-compete agreement, he worked out of the market for a year in 1975 with WJW in Cleveland, and then returned in 1976 as program director and air personality at Tampa’s WYOU. In 1977 and 1978 he pulled afternoons and was production director at WFLA before moving to the sales side of the business at WPLA and WSUN.

Ed left the bay area in 1980 and moved to Minnesota, then left radio altogether in 1986. The remainder of his career was spent with 3M and Imation as an inside sales and customer service rep. Today (2011) he's retired, living in Venice (FL), and back on the air parttime at Englewood's WENG.